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Sine Qua Non Winery

Sine Qua Non Winery

California Wine, Ventura

About Sine Qua Non Winery and Vineyard

The winery was founded in 1993, with 28 acres of land and production close to 3,000 bottles a year. Owner Manfred Krankl is an artist, not only is he the founder of Sine Qua Non Winery he designs the "labels every year giving them an Austrian look. The labels are different every year, just as the wines are different.

The ultimate garage wine from southern California emanates from a rusty warehouse that appears to be on the wrong side of the railroad tracks running through Ventura. The winery's name is Sine Qua Non (literally translated from Latin means "without which one cannot".), and as the proprietors'(the husband and wife team of Elaine and Manfred Krankl) indicate on the label of their sumptuous 1997 Syrah called Imposter McCoy, "the truth is inside". Sine Qua Non has been producing 2,000-3,000 cases of wine for a half-dozen vintages. In this short time it has become one of the hottest and most desired wine producers in California. Elaine and Manfred Krankl are both very involved in the production of artisinal wines from their small garage/warehouse. Manfred Krankl, a tall, handsome man with a wicked sense of humor, was born in Vocklabruck, a small Austrian village, but grew up in Enns, where he received training at a small hotel school. A small-town guy who wanted to see the world, his travels took him to head waiter/sommelier positions in Kitzbuhl, youth hostels in Toronto, Canada, where he held odd jobs until he got bored and took a freighter to Greece, where he proceeded to run out of money and returned home penniless. It was in Greece where he met Nancy Silverton, who convinced him to come to Los Angeles. There he held various jobs, first as a cheese specialist for an up-scale wine shop in Beverly Hills, and later as the general manager/food and beverage director of a hotel in Westwood. His interest in wine and food continued to accelerate, and in 1989, along with Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel, he formed a partnership and opened what remains one of the country's most fashionable LA restaurants, La Campanile. To no one's surprise, Manfred persuaded his partners that he should be the wine buyer. Because the owners had a hard time finding good bread for their restaurant, the same year they opened La Brea Bakery, which became an overnight success. San Diego-born Elaine Krankl, a diminutive charmer with a singular high-toned, squeaky voice, met Manfred Krankl at La Campanile, and they were married in 1990. Managing the bakery and restaurant was fun, but following their marriage Manfred began to pursue backyard winemaking (the historical precursor of garage wines), producing a tiny 200-case lot of Chardonnay called The Thief (made at the Babcock Winery with assistance from Bryan Babcock). Consumers were excited by the wine, and kept asking the Krankls about their next vintage. In partnership with the Coppo brothers from Piedmont, fifty cases of an unusual blend of Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Freisa were produced. The wines were well-received, and it became clear to both Krankls that their passion for turning grapes into wine was overtaking their interest in bread baking, restaurant management, and wine buying.

While purchasing all the wine for La Campanile, Manfred Krankl wondered what it was that made the world's great wines so extraordinary. As he discovered, there was no precise formula for the winemaking, but the people behind the wines shared many of the same characteristics, including 1) a boundless passion for wine, 2) a heart and soul approach to wine production that compelled them to follow their instincts, and 3) a naturalness/gentleness that viewed wine as a living substance that could be easily bruised, and if excessively manipulated, irreparably damaged. All of this made sense since Krankl had noticed that producing fine bread also required a non-interventionalistic, hands-off philosophy in addition to an unwavering commitment to excellence.